Actor and director Sarmad Khoosat’s upcoming directorial venture, Zindagi Tamasha (internationally known as Circus of Life) had its world premiere earlier this month at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) 2019 in South Korea.
Following the premiere, the movie that was nominated for the Kim Ji-seok Award, alongside seven other entries from Iran, India and China, has won the prestigious award jointly with Indian film, Market, directed by Pradip Kurbah.
According to Variety, the Kim Ji-seok Award is named after the festival’s co-founder and executive programmer who passed away in 2017. Headed by Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the jury for the Kim Ji-seok award included Malaysian director-actress Tan Chui Mui and Korean film critic Huh Moon-young.
Khoosat Films took to social media to announce the news. “Busan Film Festival announced the recipients of this year’s Kim Ji-seok Award and we are ecstatic to announce that Zindagi Tamasha and Market have won it jointly!” read the post on their official Facebook handle. “The team of Zindagi Tamasha (Circus of Life) cannot stop feeling blessed right now for this support that was shown not only back at home but also at the festival. Thank you BIFF 2019 for taking care of Sarmad Khoosat and Arif Hassan while the team Khoosat Films was there.”
Written by Nirmal Bano, a fresh graduate from NCA, Zindagi Tamasha features Samiya Mumtaz, Arif Hassan, Eman Suleman and Ali Kureshi in pivotal roles, while Sarmad makes a special appearance.
The film, which is set in Lahore and chronicles the life of a naat khuwaan, is scheduled to release in Pakistan in January 2020.
